Vicksburg’s Shane Lewis hits a walk-off home run to lead Troy over USM

Story from Troy Athletics:
TROY, Ala. – Troy found themselves playing extra-inning baseball for only the second time this season, and for the second time, they were victorious. Shane Lewis, in an 0-2 count, played hero, sending a fastball 351 feet down the right field line for a 5-4 walk-off win Saturday afternoon from Riddle-Pace Field and even the series with Southern Miss.

┏┓
┃┃╱╲ in
┃╱╱╲╲ this
╱╱╭╮╲╲house
▔▏┗┛▕▔
╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲
SHANE LEWIS IS HIM
╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲
▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔#BoysOfTroy 🛡️ | #OneTROY⚔️⚾️ pic.twitter.com/Q8uGQlTwhD

— Troy Baseball ⚔️ (@TroyTrojansBSB) April 2, 2023

Lewis entered Saturday’s contest tied for the team lead in home runs with 13. His 14^thhome run of the season ended the Trojans’ six-game losing streak to the Golden Eagles dating back to 2015. Lewis leads the Sun Belt Conference and ranks third in the nation in home runs. Lewis finished going 3-5 with two RBIs and a run scored.

“Our guys competed throughout,” Head coach Skylar Meade said. “We saw two teams competing as hard as they could, and fortunately, we came up on top today and should make for an exciting conclusion to the series tomorrow.”

Once again, Trojan (20-8, 4-4) pitching put on a clinic as they held the Southern Miss offense to three hits and scoreless for seven innings. Out of the bullpen (4-1), Zach Fruitearns his team-leading fourth win of the season after throwing four innings of no-hit baseball while striking out seven.

Starter Ben Thompson went 2.2 innings allowing only two earned runs, and finished with five punch outs. Following Thompson was Logan Ross, who had another solid performance in 3.1 innings of work, only allowing one hit. That hit came in the fourth inning and would be the last for Southern Miss on the day.

Taking the loss for Southern Miss (15-10, 4-4) is Justin Storm (1-1). Storm came in to start the ninth and worked out of a jam to send it into extras but only managed to get a single out in the bottom of the 10^th.

The Trojans found themselves down early as Slade Wilks hit his second home run of the series giving the visitors a 2-0 advantage. Two more runs came in the top of the third as an error kept the inning alive to go unearned against Thompson. That would be all the offense for the Golden Eagles.

Troy won only their third game this season when trailing after the seventh inning. The comeback was started in the bottom of the third as freshman Brooks Bryan launched his second home run of the year to get the Trojans on the board.

For the first time since Joey Denison, on March 14, 2018, a Trojan hit an inside-the-park home run. Kyle Mock smacked a ball to straightaway center field, and the center fielder could not make a play, allowing the ball to hit off the wall and roll where no one could get to it, allowing Mock to score and cut the deficit in half.

The bottom of the eighth saw the Trojans put together a two-out rally to tie the ball game. Kavanagh started the rally with a single followed by a Mock hit-by-pitch. Then, in a full count, it was Lewis with a single up the middle to put Troy within one, followed by a Caleb Bartolero single through the left side to tie the ball game.